By Federica Lombardi
For decades, sport competitions have not only been perfect moments to show one's physical abilities, but they have also been the stage for political statements. The Olympic Games, whose last edition took place last July in Tokyo, have witnessed many loud and famous political moments throughout their history.
The first one probably happened in 1906, when Peter O'Connor climbed up the flagpole to remove the Great Britain flag and display the Irish one, before Ireland had its independence.
We can also go as back as 1936 in Berlin during the "Nazi" Olympics, when Jesse Owens, a black track and field athlete, one of the most famous in American history, won the 100 and 200 meters race in front of Hitler, who then left the stadium to avoid congratulating him, a black man, on his win. Owens was then able to win the gold medal at the long jump race because of a technical advice from the German athlete, Carl Luz Long. After the Olympics, they became friends and sent each other letters until Long’s death during World War II. Their story is also told in the 2016 movie Race that stars Stephan James as Owens and David Kross as Long.
One of the loudest protests ever happened in an edition of the Olympics surely is the Black Power salute Tommie Smith and John Carlos did during the victory ceremony in 1968 in Mexico City. Smith and Carlos respectively won the gold and bronze medal in the 200 meters race and decided to wear black gloves during the ceremony, but Carlos forgot his. Thus the Australian silver-medalist Peter Norman suggested they wear one glove each. The picture of Smith and Carlos with their hands raised is worldwide famous. In that moment they wanted to represent the black part of America by wearing black socks and no shoes for black poverty, a black scarf for black pride, and unzipping their tracksuit as a sign of solidarity with blue-collar workers.
"If I win, I am American, not a black American. But if I did something bad, then they would say I am a N*gro. We are black and we are proud of being black. Black America will understand what we did tonight."
Those were Smith's words after the ceremony.
The last edition of the Summer Olympics was not immune from political statements. The loudest one was probably Simone Biles withdrawal from almost every competition. She decided to put her mental health first and address such a powerful message. Indeed in our society mental health is still a taboo and only the idea of turning to a psychologist for help not only makes you weak but even crazy.
Biles felt too much pressure and declared not to enjoy gymnastics anymore. In addition, she disclosed to have twisties, a very dangerous condition for gymnasts that prevent them from completing skills and does not allow them to have full control of their body while doing them. This is the reason that led to the great error she made during the team all-around final at the vault.
Biles stated in her Instagram stories that there is nothing bad in stopping for a mental health problem, because it has the same value and importance of a physical health issue. A lot of people on the internet criticized her choice of withdrawal from the team all-around, individual all-around, vault, uneven bars and floor exercise finals. Many said that she was just being overdramatic and selfish.
She also said to have "demons in her head to deal with". Many thought of the trauma that she and many other American gymnasts developed following the sexual abuses they were victims of. Even experts intervened, especially on the internet and social media, and said that trauma's effects can manifest years after the traumatic event happened.
She decided to race at the individual balance beam final and won the bronze medal as she did in Rio five years ago. This was another reason for criticism, as a matter of fact, many people started to be even more skeptical about her mental health problems. A very common question on social media was “Is it possible that she has already healed? How could she resolve such big issues in just a week?”. The lesson that we, as a society, can learn from Biles is to stop judging people for how they choose to deal with their mental health problems, try to be more empathic, because we do not know what someone is really going through, even though they are a public figure.
At the very beginning of the Games, when only team sports' tournaments started, the Australian women's football team decided to start its campaign at the Olympics with a political statement. During the group picture taken before the match started, they displayed the Aboriginal flag, addressing an important message for their own country. In the team, there are three high-level Aboriginal players, striker Kyah Simon, defender Gema Simon and goalkeeper Lydia Williams. Some people on the internet stated that the black, yellow and red colored flag should be the only one representing Australia. Surely this is not the opinion of every Australian, but it cannot be denied that the flag represents that part of the country tried to shut down during colonialism.
Despite the ban the IOC put on political statements, the 18-year-old Costa Rican gymnast, Luciana Alvarado, decided to end her floor exercise routine at her first Olympics by kneeling and raising her right hand in tribute to the Black Lives Matter movement. She told The Associated Press that her intention was to perform a choreograph that highlighted people’s equality. Her choice was extremely appreciated on the internet. That day Alvarado made history not only for being the first Costa Rican gymnast to ever compete in the Olympics, but also for her demonstration, the first of its kind a professional gymnast ever did.
Raven Saunders is surely a name many people heard or read somewhere in the last month. She is the American shot putter who won the silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics and crossed her arms while on the podium to represent, to quote her words, “the intersection of where all people who are oppressed meet”. Saunders is a black woman and part of the LGBTQ+ community and explained that the “X” she made standed for the sexism, misogyny, homophobia, and racism she and everyone like her have to face. In addition to this, she has always been really open about her mental health struggles.
"At the end of the day, we really don't care. Shout out to all my black people. Shout out to all my LGBTQ community. Shout out to all my people dealing with mental health. At the end of the day, we understand it's bigger than us and it's bigger than the powers that be. We understand that there's so many people that are looking up to us, that are looking to see if we say something or if we speak up for them."
These were her words after the ceremony. What she did could have caused her disciplinary action from the IOC, which prior the Games relaxed a ban of political demonstration on the podium, giving the possibility to athletes to express their opinion during news conferences.
Belarus was one of the two hundred and five countries racing in the Games. The political situation in the country is extremely difficult, basic human rights are not fully granted and the democracy is at high risk. People have been protesting for months now against the sixth reelection of President Alijaksandr Lukashenko. According to Minsk, Lukashenko was voted by 80% of the population and his opponent Svjatlana Cichanouskaja by 10% of it. People called out for ballot rigging, Cichanouskaja declared that 60 to 70% of the population actually voted for her and even the European Parliament decided not to recognize Lukashenko as the legitimate president of the country. In addition to this, Lukashenko is incarcerating and oppressing every opponent. The greatest example of this is the diverting of Roman Protasevich’s flight. Protasevich was heading to Lithuania, but the Belarusian President made it land off in Minsk where Protasevich was arrested.
Another example of how much freedom of thought and speech is not granted when people criticize or disagree with anything the country does is Krystsina Tsimanouskaya. The Belarusian sprinter criticized on social media the decision of her coaches to schedule her for the 4x400 meters relay calling out for negligence. As a matter of fact, she declared that many Belarusian athletes were not able to leave for Japan because of the small amount of doping tests they underwent, so she was scheduled for a race she is not trained for without her knowledge.
After this, she was told to pack and was taken to Haneda airport in Tokyo to board a flight for Minsk against her will. Tsimanouskaja asked for help from the Japanese police and was escorted to the airport hotel. In order to continue her Olympic journey, she started asking humanitarian asylum to various countries and received a response from Poland, which granted her a visa. She is now afraid of going back to Belarus and fears repressions on her family.
Many people would probably say that athletes just have to think about their training, races, and trying to succeed in them, politics is not for them. However, stages like the Olympics are perfect to speak up about political issues, human rights violations and more, because the world is watching you, and whatever you say has a wide appeal. And if people who have such a high visibility do not give a voice to people who do not have one, stand up for issues that may affect even their own community, who should?
Comments